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There was a time when Marine Le Pen was an outcast, a political pariah, sounding off against mass-immigration, and embracing views which were at best extreme, at worst downright racist. No longer. In the wake of the Paris attacks, the Front National leader suddenly finds her once lonely voice perfectly in tune with a cacophony of intolerance – and it’s frightening.

Marine Le Pen is finding she is no longer a lone voice

She’s called for an “immediate halt” to migrants admitted to France – “as a precaution”, she said in a statement, playing on fears that amongst the millions of refugees are an alarming number of would-be murderers. There are reports that at least one of the Paris attackers may have entered Europe as a purported refugee. But millions more came to this continent to escape exactly the kind of carnage Islamic State-inspired militants brought to the streets of France’s capital city on Friday night. In the past, she’d have been roundly denounced as a bigot and the political caravan would have moved on. Now, she’s in the company of a growing number of fellow travellers, across Europe and in America too, where the governors of several states have barred accepting any more refugees from Syria.

A woman prays close to the Bataclan theatre in Paris, FranceCredit:
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The Ukip leader Nigel Farage has wasted no time at all in trying to score political capital out of Friday’s atrocities, accusing some British Muslims of “tremendous conflict and a split of loyalties”. The European Union was, he claimed, "seriously imperilling our security”. It seems perverse to lay responsibility at the door of the EU - rather than the barbarous gun-toting terrorists.

But both Mr Farage and Ms Le Pen have been able to say “I told you so” after warning weeks ago that the crowds of refugees might include the odd jihadist. “I have tried again and again and again over the course of the last few months to argue that we must not let our compassion imperil our civilisation,” Mr Farage complained.

In Germany too, Pegida – which, let’s not forget, stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident – is drawing large crowds for their rallies. Its founder even used a Facebook posting to point the finger of blame at his country’s chancellor Angela Merkel for the attacks.

It’s not only the demagogues on the fringes spouting this kind of rubbish. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban stoked public fears about terrorism by suggesting there may be no limit to the number of terrorists posing as refugees. “No one can say how many terrorists have arrived already, how many are coming day by day,” he opined.

And Poland too has said it will no longer sign up to an EU plan to redistribute refugees across Europe in the aftermath of the Paris attacks. The UK has already announced it would play no part in the refugee quota scheme, though at least the government here had the decency to make a clean breast of its hardline stance before Friday’s tragedy provided an opportunity to pander to people’s worst prejudices.

Of course, even more liberal politicians admit they need to reflect on the shortcomings of border controls, and take a long hard look at whether freedom of movement needs to be modified in some way to keep the public safe. Francois Hollande himself re-imposed border controls in the aftermath of the attacks to prevent the terrorists and their acolytes escaping. Where exactly that leaves the Schengen system remains to be seen.

But while there is much talk of a “war” against Islamic State – talk which has left many feeling uneasy – there’s a battle too against the intolerance now sweeping the globe. And that will be just as difficult to win.